SD Card

I was using a brand new 32gb sd card for pics/videos. After about a couple of hours, my camer locked up. I tried turning it of and on, took the battery out, then took the sd card out and put it back in and got a message on the camera monitor saying the card was damaged. When I tried to load it in my computer, the computer could not read the card. Do anyone know what caused this or is there any way to capture all the pics/videos or is it all gone.

I have never had success using some of the recovery software available. One thing that has helped is using a computer that runs Linux like Ubuntu to try and read it it. Truth is cards do fail, most of the time due to improper removal while it is still be written or read from which is not what happened to you so it must be a failure. I got a low priced card once that was a counterfet card that failed quickly.

Just my penny's worth. I personally prefer the smaller size cards. I have an 8G SanDisk card (class4) and two PNY 8G cards (class6). I do this because I seldom need more than 8 gig in a normal day. If I think I'm going to be really active (soccer game or such) I'll carry one of the extra cards. I also download at least every other day. If something happens to one of the cards on a big shoot, not everything is lost.

I use Class 6 cards because their write speed is very close to my camera's output speed. The D5100 may require an even faster card.

I use Sandisk only 4g cards. Never had a problem with them yet. The one time I deviated to another brand, I had trouble half way through my walkabout. I get my Sandisks at WalMart for $9.99 each, which is quite affordable.

I have everything from 4G to 64G
I only use the biggest when I think I'm going to shoot a lot of video....which is rare.
Mostly I use my eye-Fi 4G


Patrick
Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

I have been using MicroCenter class 10 8GB and 16GB cards for a few months now. I love the price. For everyday shoots, they can't be beat. I mean, $7 for 8GB?

But, when you start hitting that buffer in your camera, it matters little. It's going to happen, and it's seldom a limitation of the cards. Usually your camera has more to do with it than the speed of your memory. Unless it's REALLY crap memory.. I know on the 5100, the buffer is ~16 shots in RAW. I get about 11 or 12 before it starts locking up. In JPG, they claim 100, but that's BS. At least with my cards. I wouldn't mind getting a 30MB/s card and testing..

I use GetDataback recovery software, it recovers files that other software can't even 'see' when they scan for deleted/formatted file. In fact its's so good its reported it can recover files from over 3 years ago from hard drives that are constantly in use so have a much higher chance of old files being overwritten, but its not free at $69 for the FAT version which is what your SD card filesystem 'should' be in

Or try this one thats 100% free and puts some commercial software to shame finding files I deliberately deleted and overwrote but still managed to recover where the commercial software couldn't find any trace

It's also 'portable' which means it will run anywhere you copy the folder you extract from the ZIP archive. It comes with options specifically for SD card data recovery, so give it a try as its 100% freeware, not like some software that claims to be free but is actually trial software and does sod all unless you buy it

Recuva - Portable

I use GetDataback recovery software, it recovers files that other software can't even 'see' when they scan for deleted/formatted file. In fact its's so good its reported it can recover files from over 3 years ago from hard drives that are constantly in use so have a much higher chance of old files being overwritten, but its not free at $69 for the FAT version which is what your SD card filesystem 'should' be in

Or try this one thats 100% free and puts some commercial software to shame finding files I deliberately deleted and overwrote but still managed to recover where the commercial software couldn't find any trace

It's also 'portable' which means it will run anywhere you copy the folder you extract from the ZIP archive. It comes with options specifically for SD card data recovery, so give it a try as its 100% freeware, not like some software that claims to be free but is actually trial software and does sod all unless you buy it

Recuva - Portable

If you computer can't read the card, recovery software can frequently 'see' the card/device that the computer can't

I have a 32GB class 10 Sandisk Extreme card (reportedly 45MB/s) but still only get a 17 frame buffer according to the display.
Not sure if it's because I have my file sizes set to high, but I suspect if I drop the quality or size the buffer will increase.

However, there is a huge advantage of the D5100 in that you can get away with for example the Sandisk Ultra 30MB/s card (cheaper) which is also UHS-1 compatiable.
UHS-1 specifications are minimum 50MB/s and as the D5100 supports it you have the double advantage of a fast card for your D5100, and if you use it in something else too, then you still get the 30MB/s speed (or 45MB/s if you get the Extreme)